Monastic Island of Reicheneau - UNESCO: World Heritage

Holy Roman Empire. Its contribution to European politics, science
and art was considerable. The Reichenau abbots held some of the
highest Offices in the Empire; they were arch-chancellors and
Stewards at the imperial court and abbots of important monasteries
such äs St. Denis. The so-called plan of St. Gall was drawn on the
Island. The monastery boasted a famous scriptorium, and the
workshops of the Reichenau School produced many illuminated
manuscripts; approximately 40 famous Codices have survived in
libraries all over the world. They count among the most precious
manuscripts of libraries and museums at Darmstadt,
Heidelberg, Trier, Munich, Bamberg, Cologne, Berlin,
Würzburg, Leipzig, Aachen – but also St. Paul in Lavanttal,
Solothurn, Zürich, Cividale, Rome (Biblioteca Angelica and
Vaticana), Brescia, Utrecht, Paris, Lille, Oxford, Baltimore.
Scribes trained at the Reichenau School of Illumination took its
influence far beyond the limits of its workshop (to Italy in the
South and the area around the Weser River in the North). Since
the Reichenau illuminators worked for export purposes at a
large scale the codices spread far right from the time of their
origin. Important pieces of medieval art are believed to have been
created on Reichenau, for instance the famous golden
Antependium of Basle at the Musée Cluny in Paris. Besides the
cycle of St. Georg at Oberzell, wall paintings created by artists from
Reichenau are known to have existed at St. Gallen, and have
survived at Goldbach. See enclosure A18 and A21
4. In international history and art history research the monastic
Island of Reichenau, its three churches and the works of art created
here - wall paintings and manuscript illumination in particular - play
a very important rote. A small part of the publications on Reichenau
and its works of art are listed in the enclosed bibliography. See
enclosure A13
Entries on the island of Reichenau may be found in any large
encyclopaedia; many of them offer extensive and detailed essays.
See enclosure A 12
The island of Reichenau is the subject of art history lectures and
seminars at universities all over the world. See enclosure A 14
Standard works on the island of Reichenau have been produced by
experts from countries other than Germany, among them
Switzerland, the United States and Japan. See enclosure A13, e.g.,
?475-484, 548-552, 566-591
The expert report explains the outstanding universal value of the
monastic island of Reichenau in Lake Constance. See p. 7 ff of
the Nomination.